Rangers Notes: Darvish, Fielder, Hamilton

It's been nearly a month since the Rangers won the bidding forYu Darvish, which means the deadline for a deal is approaching. The Rangers have until 4pm CDT Wednesday to work out a deal with the Japanese right-hander. Here’s the latest from Texas…

Morosi hears that extension talks with Josh Hamilton are on hold at the moment, while the club works on the Darvish deal. Hamilton will earn $13.75MM in 2012 and is set to hit free agency once the season ends.

Heyman hears that the Rangers are likely to sign Darvish to a contract worth slightly more than the $52MM Daisuke Matsuzaka obtained from the Red Sox.

The Rangers seem to love the idea of signing Fielder and would become the favorite to land the slugger if the Darvish deal falls through, Heyman writes.

John Daniels and the Texas scouting is second to none. Ranger fans should have faith that if they want to invest this much in him…. He is worth it. Dice-K is a pudgy junk baller, Darvish regularly hits 95+ during starts. This deal will get done. I’m on pins and needles, but nonetheless he WILL be signed.

Realistically, the Astros have ZERO chance in the AL West for. They have no pitching, barely any good hitters. Both Texas and LA are loaded and will dominate the division for years to come….at least until the Mariners and A’s get their prospects to the majors. even then, it will take some time for that

Why the Astros dig? The Rangers rebuilt from nothing and by losing the next couple of seasons, the Astros are going to rebuild their farm system. If they are willing to spend, they could contend in 3-5 years.

It was just sarcasm. But seriously, its gonna be tough for a team with such little talent at the moment to compete with teams like the rangers and angels have tons of power and great hitters. I know they loaded up prospects from the Bourn and Pence trades but alot of those prospects arent close to reaching the majors.

The difference is, the rangers had a legitimate trade piece (texiera) and they got a steal. They also made very good trades (Hamilton,Napoli, the list goes on). The Astros do not have the front office that the rangers do.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but as I remember from the media frenzy during the Red Sox/Matsuzaka negotiations they don’t need to have everything completely done by the deadline, just the basic principles.

The deadline is only to see who blinks first on the extra year in Darvish’s contract. It sounds like it is done for the most part. I expect a noon signing announcement followed by a phone call to Boras with a exploding offer on Fielder–here is the deal–sign now or it goes off the table and best of luck with the Nationals, Cubs and Mariners.

naturally big is really pushing it. he may be genetically big boned or whatever, but make no mistake, he is dangerously overweight and certainly a candidate for all the usual side effects of obesity as he moves towards his middle ages. if he was an average citizen, his doctor would be giving him grief.

however, his middle ages are fair ways off and the chances of his weight influencing his baseball career in the next 5-8 years is anyone’s guess, and its probably unlikely, though i think its plausible to suggest that he’s more likely to break down earlier than say an adrian gonzalez or mark teixeira.

It’s true, we legitimately have a genetic history that only improves the chances of Fielder breaking down, it’s not that farfetched. We won’t know if it will happen, but we can all agree that it’s more likely he will than the average player despite his early-mid twenties health.

Well let’s be honest, Tampa Bay’s success would be hard to replicate without Friedman. His bold moves have effectively allowed the team to move away from the idea that small market teams only have windows of opportunity. As for the above mentioning of the Rangers, frankly a fair amount of their success could be traced back to a couple of trades.

So basically unless they have a top of the line GM over there, Houston can expect to enjoy the cellar of the AL West.

That is not correct now.. going over slot, taking people left around due to signability..such as Bell was wold have worked before the newest CBA.

Houston’s problem was never spending on the draft and poor scouting..Pure and simple. You get what you pay for.

Take Boston and te Yankees.. They have had winning seasons for decades, NYY and Sox hd a couple .50 seasons way back in late 80’s-ealy 90’s, but both teams have managed to have power house farm systems by leveraging the draft and going over slot with picks, just like any other smart team can do.

Have said this numerous times.. Houston had no problem wasting 2m on Billy Hall who had no chance of helping them, why couldn’t they spend a lousy 10m on prospects in the rule 4 draft every year?

I agree, but it he made it well known who’s idea that was. I don’t agree with him throwing our 3B coach, Anderson, under the bus. I would have been extremely upset with him too though.
Hamilton didn’t have to go, but he listened to his coach…these things happen.